Deer Lick, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Deer Lick, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Deer Lick lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Deer Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Lick — the short answer
Deer Lick, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 610 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 610 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Deer Lick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Lick's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Lick
Each reading below is measured for Deer Lick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeer Lick runs about 227 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeer Lick sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Deer Lick is in
Deer Lick sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Lick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Deer Lick
Every plant below cleared Deer Lick's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Lick?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Deer Lick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Lick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Speedy's #4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Jay SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SIMMONS FOODSToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- Former The DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Buddy Foods, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- S & S Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Jay's D-XUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Abandoned Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Okla Dept Of Ag/Forestry DivUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Delaware County Dist. #2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Crank Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Jay's ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Lick's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Deer Lick.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Deer Lick
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Lick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Lick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deer Lick, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Deer Lick. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Deer Lick
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Lick average
Your land is one point inside Deer Lick
Everything above resolves to Deer Lick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 610 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Deer Lick Average
Deer Lick Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Deer Lick
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Lick
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Lick's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Lick's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Lick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Lick, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Lick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Lick average
How we know this about Deer Lick
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Deer Lick’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Deer Lick
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Lick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lick typically lands around Mar 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Deer Lick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Lick typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Lick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Lick sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Lick?
The federal record around Deer Lick shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Deer Lick?
From about Oct 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Lick's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Lick's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Deer Lick’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deer Lick's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 610 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Lick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deer Lick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Lick, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Lick's boundary and the 610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Lick's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Lick's 610 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Lick's 610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Lick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 610 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Deer Lick-wide figureread your own land →
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